“The Predisposition to Fantasy”

News analysis! Reader comments funcake!

(↑a very bad person?)

Here’s the article: Gang Memoir, Turning Page, Is Pure Fiction. And the other one, even better with slideshow.

As if you haven’t read it! But what you probably haven’t read are all 484 541 reader comments. You’re probably thinking, “What a multitude of unique voices! I wonder what all those intelligent, well-read people have to say about this issue! But how will I ever find out? There’s no way I can read them all!”

Well, now you don’t have to. If you’ll allow me?

READER COMMENTS (in order of popularity)

#1. The New York Times should have fact-checked the article(s)! Also her agent and her editor! (99% of comments)

#2. I don’t understand why she didn’t just publish it as a novel.

#3. Memoirs sell better than fiction, that’s why. (NYT readers know a lot about the publishing industry, okay?)

#4. This isn’t the first time this has happened, you know. [Insert names of other tarnished “memoirists.”]

#4. Why is this such a big deal? Writers of all kinds make stuff up. I don’t care.

#5. I can’t understand why so many people think this isn’t a big deal. THE TRUTH MATTERS.

#6. Hahaha suckers, I knew this lady was a fake the second I heard/saw/read [insert damning sentence].

#7. The lunatic fringe, a tiny percentage of comments, as embodied in the following (comment #214):

WHy would I be surprised? It’s a woman’s story, told by a woman, to a female reporter. It’s in the predisposition to fantasy is inherent in the female genes. And so is the ability to then turn the fantasy into some kind of skewed reality.

And that, ladies and germs, made all my research worthwhile.

by Left Hook | 4 March 2008 | reading | Comments